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MLUI's special report, "The Power of Energy Efficiency," introduces some of the people already making Traverse City and northwest Michigan "efficiency-ready": homeowners, business people, contractors, officials, and experts with first-hand knowledge of just how well energy efficiency works. ...

TCSaves showed that a well done, public-private, residential energy efficiency program can reach many homeowners, make them more comfortable and lower their utility bills, produce good-paying jobs, keep more cash in the local economy, increase home values, and make financial sense....

Earlier this month, engineers laid down fresh new bike lanes as part of a resurface project along heavily traveled Cass Street in Traverse City. The new lanes will help more downtown commuters leave their cars at home and bike to work....

It was a setting guaranteed to raise a smile: a squinty-bright sun, an electric-blue sky, rolling green hills, a verdant community garden and a big, immaculately restored old barn. But the folks who gathered last week at the Historic Barns Park were grinning for a different reason: Completion of the first phase of a geothermal heating and cooling system that will keep the park’s iconic Cathedral Barn comfortable year-round....

MLUI is so excited to introduce the two new FoodCorps service members who will be working from our office to promote and encourage local food and healthy eating at area schools. Here's a brief hello from them both in their own words. ...

Michigan’s clean energy entrepreneurs and advocates hope to hear some good news from Lansing about renewable energy next week.
That’s when the Michigan Public Service Commission and the Michigan Energy Office release the first of four draft-summaries of comments the public gave them earlier this year regarding the state’s future energy goals. ...

Traffic problems take on new urgency during Traverse City’s busy season as too much congestion hampers business growth, wastes fuel, and hurts this area’s quality of life. But local leaders need to fix our existing transportation network first before pursuing an expensive, ill-conceived, short-term remedy like a new Hartman-Hammond bridge. ...

It’s hard to believe that we are just one month away from the Farm Bill expiring and yet highly partisan, polarized factions of Congress still have failed to pass a new bill. With one more week before Congress goes back in session, there’s no better time to contact your representatives to urge passage of a full five-year Farm Bill — one that different types of farms can plan around and that those of us who want to eat good local food can count on....

Last month, a surprisingly large number of people showed up at a remote northern Michigan park to rally against something that, weeks earlier, few of them had ever heard about: the twin, 60-year-old pipelines that transport 22 million gallons of oil a day beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Attracting a crowd to a distant location for a rally about a largely unknown pipeline is impressive; so is reviving a moribund organization to produce the event in just six weeks....

It’s time for Grand Traverse County to use a state law to help local firms cut energy costs and boost bottom lines. The 2010 law, called PACE—Property Assessed Clean Energy—allows local governments to establish bonds for loans to improve commercial buildings’ efficiency or install renewable energy devices, cutting their utility bills. Local units then use special property tax assessments for loan repayments....